Six Years to Go
by meowloudly15
Summary: Lana places a call to make sure she still has a job offer. One-shot. Set six years in the future.


**This is an idea that's been sitting in my head since November 2018. I woke up one morning with the concept in mind, and now, here it is. I'm trying something different with it here, so here's hoping it's not too odd of a principle.**

**Thanks for reading, and enjoy!**

**(Also, please stay tuned for my webcomic which comes out in December)**

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"Hi, this is Bobbie Fletcher. May I ask who this is?"

"Hi Bobbie! It's Lana!"

"Lana… Loud?"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, hey, Lana! It's been so long since I've heard from you! When did we last chat, last year?"

"Yep! And now it's my birthday again!"

"Oh, great! Happy birthday!"

"Thanks! I'm twelve now! Six years left until I can join your pit crew! Are you still saving a spot for me?"

"Uh, of course I am, yeah! It's good to hear that you're still interested! I'd have thought you'd have grown out of that phase by now."

"Nah, I like mechanic work too much to give it up. It's so much fun! Have you ever tried?"

"Sure, I've done some repairs to my car before. I've picked up some techniques from my pit crew over the years. The fixes are nothing like what they can do, though. Or you, for that matter. You were the sharpest little six-year-old I've ever met."

"Heh, yeah, I guess prodigy kind of runs in our family. My little sister Lisa, she's ten now, she has seven doctorates already!"

"You… you're kidding!"

"Nah! And she's got an Urdish number of 2, but I don't know what that means."

"She, uh, wait, I think I've heard of this before… she's written a paper with someone who's written a paper with Paul Erdös?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's it. I think. Still not sure, though. Sometimes, Lisa starts talking with big words that aren't actually real. At least, I don't think they are."

"Yeah, that happens sometimes. My older brother is an astrophysicist at NASA…"

"At NASA? That's awesome!"

"It sure is! He took us on a tour of the facility one time!"

"Woah!"

"Yeah, it was real neat! But like I was saying, Tim would sometimes talk with us about this space mumbo-jumbo, and he'd mix in made-up words with the real technical terms, and we wouldn't know any better!"

"That's hilarious!"

"Not at first, it wasn't."

"Do you have a lot of siblings?"

"No, just Tim and an older sister, Andi. I'm the baby of the bunch. And the dumbest of them, too."

"Aw, don't say that!"

"Well, it's true. Andi's a math professor at Stanford. I wonder if she knows your sister… I'll have to ask."

"Yeah, ask her! And I'll ask Lisa! Oh, wait, there she is. I'll ask right now.

"_Hey, Lisa!"_

"_What do you require?"_

"_Do you know a math professor at Stanford named… Andi Fletcher?_

"That's her name, right?"

"Uh, she's married now, so she goes by Andi Berkner."

"Oh, sorry. Hang on.

"_Actually, her name's Andi Berkner. Do you know her?"_

"_Tragically, I do not, nor have I read anything which she has published. However, if she is a contemporary of yours, I would be happy to maybe contact her."_

"_Oh, you would? Thanks, Lisa!"_

"_The pleasure is mine."_

"Did you hear that, Bobbie?"

"Yeah, I did! Good to hear! I'll reach out to Andi on my end."

"Awesome!"

"Well, uh, I don't wanna impede the rest of your birthday, so I guess I'll hang-"

"No, no, you wouldn't be impeding. Am… am I impeding on you?"

"No, it's a day between races."

"Ah. I haven't been following you much of late. How's racing going?"

"Oh, it's going pretty well! Came in third in my latest one!"

"Great! Who didja beat out?"

"Uh, ever heard of Lane Dearhardt?"

"You beat him? Holy cow!"

"I know, right? It was by like fifteen milliseconds, but that's still a victory!"

"Holy cow! You beat Lane Dearhardt!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's not that big a de-"

"But he's Lane Dearhardt! And you beat him! I-I'm sorry, I'm just so excited! I've gotta watch that race now!"

"Well, why don't you go on ahead and do that?"

"Are… Are you in a rush?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you supposed to be doing something else?"

"Uh, no, not at all, why?"

"Well, you seem awfully eager to hang up on me."

"Oh, no, it's not that, it's just that I don't want you to be kept away from your family for too long. It's your birthday, after all."

"I… but I wanted to keep talking to you."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I only call you once a year. It's like a tradition now, and I wanna make the most of this call."

"I mean, you can call me more often than that, if you want."

"I… I guess I could. You know what, that's a good idea! Here, do you have me listed as a contact?"

"No, but I'll put you down. I'll call you sometime. Actually, call me tomorrow, around 5 pm. I should be done with my race by then. Heck, I'll call you afterwards."

"Aw, thanks! I'd love to talk with you! And I'll be sure to watch the race! I'm rooting for you from Royal Woods!"

"It's always nice to have support!"

"Oh, and if your car breaks down, I'm just a phone call away!"

"I'll keep that in mind!"

"All right then, bye!"

"Talk to you soon! Bye!"


End file.
